Day 54 - No Whey

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Yesterday was awful. I ate some stuff that didn't agree with me, and I felt like crap the entire afternoon/evening.

I used to think I was just lactose-intolerant, after several experiments in which I'd eliminated dairy from my diet. I was completely fine eating cheese (like, real, aged cheese), fine eating greek yogurt, fine eating kefir....but as soon as I added milk, artificial cheese, or whey protein supplements to the mix, I felt awful and bloated. So, I thought it was just lactose intolerance..... so, I bought some supplements, like lactaid and dairy digest. But they didn't help. At all.

Yesterday I realized that my symptoms were more extreme than just digestive upset. First off, I was doing my measurements for the month, so I happened to have measured my belly before eating the whey -- 51 inches. Then I had some cheesy quinoa made with cheddar powder (containing milk and whey powder). Immediately, I bloated up to 56 inches!!! I had a terrible headache and fatigue, with sinus congestion. Also, my anxiety was sky high.

Taken as a whole I thought these symptoms added up to more than just lactose intolerance. It really ruined my evening and I felt irritable and grumpy, and was unable to run because of my dietary choice. After some google sleuthing, I've discovered that people can be allergic/sensitive to one milk protein and not another. Since I can eat cheese and yogurt, I know am not sensitive to casein. The difference between greek yogurt and regular? it has 99% of the whey strained out. Aged cheese has almost 0% whey.

SO yeah, I think I am sensitive to whey in one form or another. I'm happy I've figured it out, because I think it has been making me feel like crap for a long time without my really realizing it. I do feel tons better today... so I will just avoid it. I'm already avoiding gluten and cooking 95% of my meals at home, so this shouldn't be too big of a deal. I can even make cheese sauce, with soy milk and grated (aged) cheese.

Frankly, I'm just grateful that I can still eat aged cheese. I freaking love cheese, but I can live without milk / artificial cheese / cheese powder. :) Also, I prefer dark chocolate and soy milk over their dairy alternatives, so this isn't so bad.

The next time I sit on my tuffet (what the f* is a tuffet, anyway?), I will be eating my curds -- sans whey.

Oh yeah, and it's time to do that run that I missed yesterday. I'm glad to report that my belly is back down to the pre-bloat measurement -- I am going to keep it that way!

I cut way back on my dairy products 2 weeks ago, and it jump-started my weight loss again! I started drinking my coffee black, and I eliminated milk and yogurt.I used to love eating Arctic Zero "ice cream," but the whey in it caused painful and visible bloating. After eating it, I looked like I was 3 months pregnant! I never measured... but that was a good idea.